The gulf of Castellammare is a large and deep natural inlet going from Capo Rama (near

Terrasini Terrasini is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo on the island of Sicily in Italy. Data Terrasini is located west of Palermo at the motorway between Palermo and Trapani, between the mountains and the Gulf of Castell ...

, in the

province of Palermo The Province of Palermo ( it, provincia di Palermo; Sicilian: ''pruvincia di Palermu'') was a province in the autonomous region of Sicily, a major island in Southern Italy. Its capital was the city of Palermo. On 4 August 2015, it was replaced ...

) and Capo San Vito near

San Vito Lo Capo San Vito Lo Capo ( scn, Santu Vitu) is a town and ''comune'' in North-Western Sicily, Italy, administratively part of the province of Trapani. The small town is located in a valley between mountains, and is home to a public beach that is destin ...

, in the

province of Trapani Trapani ( it, Provincia di Trapani, scn, Pruvincia di Tràpani; officially ''Libero consorzio comunale di Trapani'') is a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily, southern Italy. Following the suppression of the Sicilian provinces, it ...

. It is located on the western coast of Sicily and it faces the

Tyrrhenian Sea The Tyrrhenian Sea (; it, Mar Tirreno , french: Mer Tyrrhénienne , sc, Mare Tirrenu, co, Mari Tirrenu, scn, Mari Tirrenu, nap, Mare Tirreno) is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenian pe ...

History

In the Roman period the gulf of Castellammare was called ''"Sinus Aegestanus"'', referring to the ancient town of

Segesta Segesta ( grc-gre, Ἔγεστα, ''Egesta'', or , ''Ségesta'', or , ''Aígesta''; scn, Siggésta) was one of the major cities of the Elymians, one of the three indigenous peoples of Sicily. The other major cities of the Elymians were Eryx a ...

, which still has some ruins (the temple and the theatre). In 1714 it was called ''"golfo di Longuro or Longarico"'' by Guglielmo del'Isle in his geographical map, referring to the old town centre existing near the present

Alcamo Alcamo (; scn, Àrcamu, italic=no) is the fourth-largest town and communes of Italy, commune of the Province of Trapani, Sicily, with a population of 44.925 inhabitants. It is on the borderline with the Metropolitan City of Palermo at a distan ...

.Vincenzo Regina: Alcamo, una città della Sicilia.
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Municipalities

Along the gulf from east to west are, in sequence, the communes of

, Trappeto, Balestrate,

Castellammare del Golfo Castellammare del Golfo (; scn, Casteddammari; la, Emporium Segestanorum or ) is a town and municipality in the Trapani Province of Sicily. The name can be translated as "Sea Fortress on the Gulf", stemming from the medieval fortress in the h ...

and

. The small town of Castellammare del Golfo, which gives its name to the gulf itself, is in its centre. In 2001 local governments constituted the association "Sviluppo del Golfo" (Gulf Development), and in its ambit they founded the "Patto Territoriale Golfo di Castellammare", an initiative by different local authorities and representatives of social and economic parties having as a scope the local development of the Gulf of Castellammare. In this agreement the participants are the municipalities of this gulf and those near it, various associations and the Banca Don Rizzo. In 2010 they also formed the "Local Action Group Gulf of Castellammare", involving different communes, economic subjects, associations and professional organizations, to form a joint plan of local development for the territory of the Gulf of Castellammare.

Tourist attractions

On the eastern end of the gulf is the , while west of Castellammare towards San Vito Lo Capo is the Zingaro nature reserve (

Riserva naturale dello Zingaro Riserva naturale dello zingaro was the first natural reserve set up in Sicily in May 1981, located almost completely in the municipal territory of San Vito Lo Capo. It stretches along some seven kilometers of unspoilt coastline of the Gulf of Ca ...

), and

Scopello __NOTOC__ The Commune of Scopello (Italian: ''Comune di Scopello''; population about 450) is located in the Valsesia region of the Italian Pennine Alps, in the Piedmontese Province of Vercelli. The municipality covers an area of and ranges in ...

with its stacks and

almadraba Almadraba (from Andalusi Arabic ''almaḍraba,'' meaning 'the place to strike, also derived into pt, Almadrava) is an elaborate and ancient technique for trapping and catching Atlantic bluefin tuna (''Thunnus thynnus'') originally used by the Ph ...

(''tonnara''). File:Torre-Capo-Rama-bjs.jpg, Tower on the coast in Capo Rama nature reserve File:Palermo terrasini 1.jpg, Beach at

File:Trappeto-spiaggia.jpg, Trappeto Beach File:Balestrate, spiaggia ovest ( lato paese ).JPG, Beach in Balestrate File:Trapani alcamo marina 2.jpg,

Alcamo Marina Alcamo Marina is a seaside resort in the north-western part of Sicily and in the town territory of Alcamo. It is situated 6 km far from it, about 5 km from the small town of Castellammare del Golfo, 16 km from the village of Scope ...

File:Castellammare del Golfo harbor.JPG,

harbour File:Tonnara di Scopelo - General view.JPG,

Faraglioni In Italian, (; nap, faragliune ; singular in both languages) are stacks, coastal and oceanic rock formations eroded by waves. The word may be derived from the Greek ' or Latin ("lighthouse") and is cognate with the Spanish . They are found ...

and

tonnara ''Mattanza'', literally 'slaughter' or 'killing' in Italian, also known as ''Almadraba'' in Spanish and ''Almadrava'' in Portuguese, is a traditional tuna fishing technique that uses a series of large nets to trap and exhaust the fish. There ar ...

File:Riserva dello Zingaro - caletta.jpg,

File:Trapani san vito lo capo 2.jpg, Beach at

References

{{Authority control Castellammare

History

Municipalities

Tourist attractions

See also

References